Oooh-la-la! 'iPhone 5' bares all, strokes tiny nano-SIM in pics

Apple's leaky supply chain has doled out pictures of the insides of what's claimed to be an iPhone 5, indicating that the forthcoming mobe will take nano-SIMs.

Photos of what appears to be the next-gen handset fresh off a Chinese assembly line appeared on French site Nowhereelse.fe, and revealed the presence of a nano-SIM drawer as well as a larger screen and new 9-pin connector for hooking the gadget up to a computer or power point.

Apple moved to micro-SIMs from normal SIM cards, which identify individual customers on a mobile network, for the iPhone 4 to save space within the tightly packed phone, but the nano-SIM is much more compact.

The nano-SIM is 40 per cent smaller than the micro-SIM and thinner, allowing it to fit inside even thinner mobes.

A row kicked off over the nano-SIM in March when several companies including Apple were touting their own ideas for the tiny chip. Rival phone makers including Nokia, which came up with its own nano-SIM design, feared Apple would patent its nano-SIM blueprint and claim royalties from everyone using the standard.

The official nano-SIM standard was then set in June by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute ensuring that all cards are 12.3mm wide by 8.8mm high, and 0.67mm thick.

The FT reported in July that carriers were stocking up on nano-SIMs ahead of the expected iPhone 5 launch in September. ®